Anna Zgambo is pursuing a PhD in Literature at the University of Zambia with a focus on lyric poetry. She is a Hope Prize Protégé and 2024 Idembeka Creative Writing Fellow. Her poetry appears in Ubwali Literary Magazine and is forthcoming in Akpata Magazine. Read more at annazgambo.com .
Hibiscus, you’re a hand while alive— You will die as a fist, fingers folded. I don’t believe in rebirth but your stem does. The replacement raises a thumb at dawn, Waves with a wink when the fist falls— Five petals find me sweeping skeletons. You nod my way yet kneel to greet eternity. The heat of that handshake could cook… Read more →
Freedom, you misplace my identity At the tollgate, yet you find a face Reflected in eyes that iron air. Perhaps a concept can burn into a person, But when will my body And my sisters become people? Loss hides in the hills behind us— I lose a language in the name of nationhood. The route home is as dilapidated as… Read more →